The CEO's Regret: Darling, Don’t Leave Me novel Chapter 104

Chapter 82: The Battle Is Not Lost.-1

Ethan

The silence stretches between us like a rope about to break, Clara does not respond.

She doesn’t say yes. She doesn’t say no. She just looks down at her coffee, as if she could find an easier way out of the foam than looking into my eyes, but i can’t stay there.

Not again

“Clara,” I repeat, and my voice comes out lower, more raw. “Tell me… do! have a chance?

She doesn’t look up, I feel my pulse hitting my temples.

“Because I don’t want to fight,” I continued, taking a step towards her, “knowing that in the end the war… and the battle of wanting to make you fall in love… are lost.”

I never talk like that, I never use words like war for something emotional.

But this is it. It is strategy against destiny, it is pride against repentance.

It is the past against what it could still be. She still doesn’t look at me.

And that scares me more than any direct rejection.

Finally she puts the glass down on my desk, the sound of cardboard touching the wood is soft, but for me

it rumbles. She stands up.

“I think I should go now,” she says.

Her tone is not cold, she is evasive. I feel that worse.

“I just went through- coffee,” she adds, almost as if trying to convince herself. “I mean, to give you a

coffee.”

That was all.

Was that all?

I watch her head for the door, and something inside me activates.

I can’t let her leave like that, not after I open what I opened. Not after admitting fear.

She walks decisively, too much. As if staying a second longer was dangerous.

And maybe it is

But losing her without a fight would be even more so, I reach her before she touches the handle.

My hand wraps around her arm, not roughly. But firmly, the contact shakes me.

Her warm skin under my fingers, she stops immediately. She stays still, she doesn’t move away.

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That giecs ine a fraction of hope

Don’t go like that,” I say, closer to her than I planned.

My voice is no longer hard; it has urgency

She barely turns her face towards me, I can see the conflict in her eyes. And hate being the cause of that conflict.

But I also know that I am part of it because I still mean something.

“I don’t try… I don’t want to pressure you,” I add. “I just want to be honest.”

My hand is still on his arm, but now I feel the weight of the gesture.

I don’t want to hold her by force. I want her to stay because she chooses to.

I loosen the grip a little, although I don’t let go completely.

“If the answer is no… Tell me. It will hurt, yes. But I will accept it.”

I swallow hard.

This is the most vulnerable thing I’ve been in front of her since we divorced.

“But if there’s a slight possibility… Don’t close the door on me without saying it.”

Its perfume envelops me, all too familiar. Too dangerous.

The office no longer exists, nor does the building.

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There is only her and me, centimeters away from a truth that neither wants to pronounce first.

My thumb barely brushes her skin, unconscious.

“I can’t lose you by silence, Clara.”

There it is.

The real fear is not even Alexander. Nor the filthy flowers.

The silence… The indecision that leaves room for someone else to act.

I watch her waiting for her to turn all the way to me, waiting for her to say something.

Whatever. But this time I’m not going to feign indifference.

I’m not going to be the invulnerable man who lets pride decide.

If I have to fight for her, I will.

I just need to know that the battle is not lost before I begin.

My hand rises almost without thinking, my fingers leave her arm and travel to her face.

Her skin, her warm cheek under my palm. I hold it with a delicacy that doesn’t match the hurricane inside

Chapter 42

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approach, not quickly. Not abrupt.. Slow.

As if I were giving her time to run away, as if I myself needed to understand what i am about to do.

My eyes go down to her lips, God..

How many times did I kiss them without measuring consequences, how many times did I have them so close without valuing the privilege.

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Chapter 82 Hattie M Not beat–7

Chapter 82: The Battle Is Not Lost.–2

Desire runs through me, but it’s not just physical. It is memory, it is longing. It is repentance.

She closes her eyes. And my heart races. But then…

“Don’t do it,” she whispers.

There is no anger in her voice, there is no rejection. There is trembling.

“Don’t get close like that…”

I am millimeters away from her mouth.

“If you come close like that again… I will answer your question.”

I barely open my eyes, confused.

My thumb brushes her cheek, her skin reacts to my touch. She opens her eyes slowly.

We look at each other, there is no office. There is no past.

Just this dangerous space between us.

“Clara… I need to hear it,” I whisper, and my voice brushes her lips like a contained promise.

She takes a deep breath.

I feel her breath mingle with mine.

“My heart is starting to react, Ethan… to these dangerous approaches.”

The world stops, I open my eyes wide.

It takes my mind a second to process it.

React? Dangerous?

“Does that mean-” my voice is no longer firm. It is vulnerable. It is almost that of a man waiting for

absolution.

She swallows hard. And in that gesture I see the same battle that I lead.

“I think so,” she whispers. “I think there is a possibility.”

The word possibility hits my chest hard.

It is not a resounding yes, but it is infinitely more than a no. It is a door ajar.

It’s air after being submerged too long.

My forehead almost touches hers now, I close my eyes for a second. Not to kiss her, to contain myself. Because if I kiss her now, I’ll kiss her with everything I feel. And I don’t want this to be just an impulse.

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Chapter 82-4

Lwant it to be a choice. When I look at her again, there is no despair in me anymore.

There is determination.

“Then I’m not going to waste it,” I murmured.

My thumb keeps drawing a soft line on her cheek.

“I’m not going to make the same mistakes.”

I barely separate.

Enough so that she can breathe without feeling like I’m dragging her into something inevitable.

But I don’t let go of her completely.

“I don’t want your heart to react out of danger,” I say, firmer. “I want it to react because it feels safe.”

I look at her like I didn’t look at her for years.

Without assuming, without imposing. Just waiting.

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“Tell me what you need from me,” I whisper. “And I will.”

Because this time I’m not fighting for pride. I’m fighting for her.

And now more than ever, I feel that the battle is not lost.

“Then I have a half chance… don’t I?”

The words come out of me with a strange mixture of disbelief and hope. I can’t help it. I look at her as if I

fear that at any moment she will retract, that she will say that it was a mistake, that this was all just an

instant of weakness. But Clara does not retract.

Her lips curl slightly.

“Half…” she whispers.

And that little smile of her… God. I haven’t seen her like this for years. Not directed at me.

“Yes,” she continues softly. “I think that’s what it should be called… half possibility.”

A low laugh escapes from my chest.

It’s not a big laugh. It is not a triumph… It’s relief, pure relief.

Because after months of believing that I had lost her forever, after everything I broke between us… Having half a chance feels like the whole world has been given back to me.

Our eyes are still connected.

And in that silence there is something new, something fragile.

Something that can still break if we force it too much. But also something that breathes again, my hand goes up again to her face almost without thinking. The thumb gently brushes the curve of her lips.

Chapter 37

Their skin is warm, their lips open just on contact

My breathing slows down.

Deeper.

“I can’t let you go like this…” I murmured.

She tilts her head slightly.

“So how?”

The way she asks… calm, curious… It makes my chest tighten.

I look her straight in the eye..

“Like this,” I say in a low voice. “Without kissing those lips.”

One second, only one. In which neither of them moves… But this time she doesn’t stop me.

She does not say no, she does not close the distance. Just stay there. And that’s enough.

My hand slides behind her neck gently, barely bringing her closer.

When our lips meet, the kiss is slow. Almost cautious. As if we were remembering a language that we once spoke fluently but had not used for too long.

Its mouth is soft, familiar. But at the same time… different. Because now there is something else, be careful.

Hope.

My lips move slowly over her, tasting, acknowledging.

She answers, not in a hurry. But with a warmth that makes something in my chest melt.

My other hand meets her waist. I bring her a little closer, just a little.

The kiss changes, it becomes deeper. More intense.

It’s not desperate, but it’s loaded with everything we’ve contained for so long.

Her fingers gently grip the fabric of my shirt. And when I feel that small gesture… Something inside me lights up. Because Clara always did that when she began to lose herself in a kiss.

My thumb slides down her jaw as my mouth reaches for her again.

Firmer, safer. Her breath mixes with mine, the world outside this office ceases to exist.

There is no company, there is no past. There’s no Alexander, there’s no Vanessa. Only Clara.

Only this moment when her mouth meets mine again. And as I kiss her, I understand it with a clarity that hits my chest.

If this is a half possibility… I’m going to fight to turn it into everything.

Chapter 83 +14)